All Good Again

Important things to know about Atlanta mystery men Goodie Mob.

Founded in the mid-'90s, Goodie Mob is one of Southern hip-hop's most revered acts. The Atlanta foursome, led by rotund crooner Cee-Lo Green in his pre-Gnarls Barkley days, were so uniquely talented, their oddball behavior was interpreted by many rap pundits as genius. Clearly, Cee-Lo wore that fishnet shirt and blond wig because he's so much smarter than you or me.

And for the first time in 10 years, the proper line-up of the Mob is performing together on an 11-city tour — with no less than Scarface opening — that stops in Houston Monday. This is huge.

However, even when Goodie Mob was really popular, they weren't really all that mainstream popular. And fans of the group can be proper elitists, so here are a few things you should know before you head out to the show.

Right on Track: Atlanta's Goodie Mob is back serving scrumptious Soul Food.

Details

with Scarface, 8 p.m. Monday, October 19, at House of Blues, 1204 Caroline, 888-402-5837 or www.hob.com/Houston.

There are, in fact, more people in Goodie Mob than just Cee-Lo. Three more, to be exact: Big Gipp, Khujo (pronounced Coo-Joe) and T-Mo (pronounced T-Mo).

Any review, profile or article about Goodie Mob will inevitably feature wayward plays on the term "soul food," the title of the group's breakthrough 1995 album. Work this in wherever you can, i.e., "Goodie Mob's music is real soul food, no table scraps." Or, if talking to a lady, "May I soul-food you a drink?"

Goodie Mob is a backronym meaning "The GOOD DIE Mostly Over Bullshit." Cee-Lo notes on Soul Food that if you remove one of the O's, it also stands for "GOD Is Every Man of Blackness." Conversely, if you take away all the letters and replace them with EWKORCITTS, it spells out "We Rock Tits."

"Backronym," by the way, is not a made-up word. It refers to when a word is reinvented as an acronym. Don't front – you had no idea.

In 2007, Khujo had his right leg amputated below the knee following a car crash. No joke.

Goodie Mob is credited with having coined the phrase "Dirty South." That's great and all, but we're more concerned with who coined the phrase "coined the phrase."

After ringleader Cee-Lo temporarily left the group, Goodie Mob put out on album titled One Monkey Don't Stop No Show. They claimed it was not a shot at 'Lo; everyone knew better.

The group appeared in the movie Mystery Men. If you didn't notice them, that's because they were disguised as the Not So Goodie Mob. Oh, that clever Ben Stiller.

If you search the phrase "Goodie Mob" in Google Images with the filter off, it only takes four pages before you find a picture of what appears to be two men fellating each other in a standing 69. If you search "UGK," you have to go 23 pages before you even find a picture of a girl in a bikini – proof positive that Houston is more respectful toward women, and possibly blow jobs.

NEWS FEED

It's shaping up to be an excellent few weeks for poster-art enthusiasts. KTRU's Revelry Report hosts Matthew Wettergreen and Phillip Beck would like local artists to submit examples of their work, in any medium as long as it's from this decade, to mwettergreen@gmail.com or pfbeck@gmail.com for an upcoming concert-poster exhibit that opens November 20 at Caroline Collective. Deadline is November 1.

Also, two of Houston's most talented artists each have an upcoming exhibition. Carlos Hernandez opens another installation of his "Day of the Dead" artwork Friday, October 30, at Cactus Music (2110 Portsmouth). Meanwhile, Uncle Charlie hosts a showing of his posters and prints (also available for sale) 6 p.m. Saturday, November 7, at Sig's Lagoon (3710 Main).